Article Marketing: How to Choose Targeted Keyword Phrases for Higher Rankings
“How do I tell if the keywords I’m picking are low competition but high in popularity?”
shalisha42 asked this question in the NPT Forum…
I’ve written 100s of articles and have submitted my articles through Ezine Articles, GoArticles, Hubpages, and American Chronicle. I tried Squidoo and I NEVER get traffic. The topics are very popular – weight loss, dating and making money online. I promote 3 affiliate products so I make sure I put links in my article – sparingly.
I’m having trouble understanding how to determine if a keyword is worth using in my articles. I use my Wordtracker (I have the full version since last year and still don’t know how to use it despite having read the manual) and Google Keyword Tool. When I see there are at least 11,000 or higher searches monthly, and the bar is completely colored in, I interpret it as being a popular keyword phrase.
But how do I figure out if there is competition? What is the competition barometer? How do I tell if the keywords I’m picking are low competition but high in popularity? I have an EXCELLENT NICHE but because I don’t understand the keyword concept, I think that is what is not enabling me to make sales.
Keyword Phrase Competition
There are many factors as to why articles may not got noticed or ranked, but targeting a keyword or keyword phrases with too much competition could certainly be a problem.
What you should evaluate first is the KEI, or Keyword Effectiveness Index of a particular keyword to determine whether it’s worth targeting in your articles.
What is KEI?
KEI is a measure of how effective a keyword is for your web site.
In very simple terms, keyword effectiveness is determined by comparing the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is searched (popularity) and the number of times it appears on competing web pages (competition).
The KEI isn’t a strict ratio however, as sheer volume is also considered. So, where the ratio between popularity and competition may be the same for 10 searches/3 sites and 100 searches/30 sites.. the latter would have a higher KEI than the first because it is more popular.
Simply understand that you are looking for HIGH numbers. Here’s an example.
I used Wordtracker’s Comprehensive & competition searches from the “Full Search” link (in the old interface) to study the KEI for ‘dating’ keywords in Google. (See “Wordtracker Terms Defined” at the bottom of the post if you are unfamiliar with the terms “Count, 24hours & Competing shown in the graphic). At the top of the list, the following keywords were shown:
At the bottom of the list, these were the keywords returned.
Note the differences. At the top are very unique searches whereas at the bottom are the most generic terms. The keyword ‘dating’ itself has a KEI of 0.00 – so on it’s own, it’s not worth targeting.
So, if you are focusing on very generic terms in your articles, it’s doubtful surfers will pick them up through the Google listings.
Find a Niche within a Niche
However, as shown in the screenshots above, if you want to catch a popular and increasing trend, you’d do well to work celebrity names into the titles and body of your dating articles. Other worthwhile niches to combine with dating (not shown in the graphics above) are astrological signs such as “Aries man” and geographic regions, i.e. “Indonesian Girls”.
Finding a niche within a niche applies not only to article marketing but to your entire online business as well. For example, if I were starting my online dating review service today, it’s highly unlikely that I would take the broad-based approach that I did with 101Date.com. I would focus on just one of the categories listed in the long sidebar (on the interior pages), such as Mail Order Brides or Disabled Singles.
Ergo, you should hone in on and combine another popular niche (or even 2) with a very generic subject such as dating. An example of a very finely honed niche would be Prince Harry’s dating escapades about which you could write a series of articles. You might branch out from there to write about other royal singles dating adventures and then work that into a promo for Wealthy Men or Millionaire Mates.
Besides, who Prince Harry is dating now is essential knowledge — isn’t it? 
The topic of finding a niche within a niche is discussed in the Super Affiliate Handbook as a way to attract more targeted traffic to your site and specific pages.
Wordtracker Terms Defined
Count – This shows the number of times a particular keyword has appeared in our database. E.g. Our database currently holds 296 million words. A count of 147 tells us that this particular word has appeared 147 times out of 296 million.
24hrs – This is the number of predicted traffic you would expect to receive in 24hrs if you were the top bid of the google search engine alone.
Competing- Each keyword has been submitted to the google search engine and the number of competing web pages given in response. The lower the competition (particularly under 300) the easier you will find it to reach the top of google using this keyword.
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Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant.
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Great post Rosalind. Having posted 100s of articles without seeing ANY traffic seems almost impossible to me but I am guessing that it is an over statement to make a point.
Keyword research can be difficult but I also know that Wordtracker has some very detailed guides that will help you out if you don’t understand how to use their service.
Regards,
Mikael
Great post Rosalind. I also use Google Adwords Search Tool. It seems to work effectively with Article Marketing. I also heard that to not overdo keywords is a big tip to maximizing the articles
effectiveness. I stick with the main keyword in title and I also insert it in the article body 2-3 times. What’s your opinion?
Hi Todd,
I think that using the keyword phrase as many times in an article as would seem ‘natural’ to a reader is about right. Anything more and then it seems like you’re writing for the search engines, not your readers.
Cheers,
Ros
Hi there Ros,
Good article! I am at present struggling with my niche choice, I have a passion for healthy food and fitness but so far have only come up with ‘fitness and diet for women’ but still feel the niche would be too wide..what do you think?
I have your book and I know you say not to spend too much time on picking a niche as non are perfect but it really seems difficult to me now as I know what I love but it is such a vast and saturated market on the internet and I can’t seem to come up with much for the niche within a niche.
I am a determined person and really want to work hard to make a online business work so why do I feel so stuck and slightly frustrated at the very beginning?
Thanks greatly for any input!
Ps. I love houses and interior design too just as a hobby but not looked into that as would not know where to start…
Hi Tracey
You’re right, the diet and fitness market and its competition is HUGE. Having said that however, if you can create a slant that is completely your own and which is entertaining and interesting to your readers, there’s no reason you can’t have a slice of that pie if you’re prepared to work it and work it hard… in the beginning. Tracey’s Tasty Treats? Recipes for healthy food? FAST healthy food recipes? I’m sure there must be an angle…
Best of success!
Cheers,
Ros
Thank you Ros for your prompt reply!
I am looking for an angle on it.. problem is I am eager to just get started and although I have an income now would like to think I could give up my other job in about a year with hard work but I feel sometimes entering a market so huge is just giving me an uphill battle from the get go and is that good idea for a newbie?
Money is not my only goal (i do wish wholeheartedly to enjoy what I do) but worry if I pick a hard one from the start I may look be taking on too much and never make any money? sometimes the internet just seems too vast now to make a impact umless it is a smaller niche from the beginning..
I promise this is the last letter but would appreciate your thoughts on entering a large market or whether I should look for something else I am interested in instead that is for the newbie who DOES want to give up the day job sooner rather than later and be happy in what I do while making others happy too
Hey Ros,
That was a great post. But I have a much different problem. I have several blogs and all of my keywords are optimized on my sites and in my articles. I’m a big fan of article marketing
I’m getting loads of traffic, but not making many sales. I have pondered this for many months now and just can’t figure out what the problem is. It’s a dang mystery to me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
By the way, I enrolled in your first Blogging class and learned so much. So I’m an expert at putting these things together…thanks to you, but what good is it if you’re not making many sales?
Thanks for listening?
Ruth
For me, If you’ll overdo your keywords on your post or article, expect that your post/article will look spammy and Search Engines can do detect that
Am I telling here right?
Thank you kindly for your words and help I will keep at it
Targeting a keyword that is not in high competition is tedious work indeed. Although I must say, whether you are using an uncommon or very common keyword, I suppose it is still about how you write the content of your site and how you do the basics of SEO.
I have a program called IBP. It helps me see which key words are the most used in a search, and also how many resulting pages are listed when that keyword is used. That way I can tell which keywords are the most important, and also how hard it would be to get ranked high for that keyword. Sometimes it is worth it to focus a lot of attention building back links for certain keywords, as getting a higher ranking will result in a lot more conversions.
Nowadays people using search engine learn that it’s not the pagerank give what the searcher really want but the content of the website that they really need, So we must be very specific in placing keywords in our website and be careful not the overcrowded it(maybe 5-6% density is ok).thank
I found this article to be very informative as well as productive as you have given me ideas through which i can take advantage and I hope you will continue sharing your ideas like this about Article Marketing.
That was a brilliant and helpful post! In SEO, keyword is the life blood. Thus, we need to have a research on what are the best keywords to use in a particular niche.
Article marketing is very much important for getting good back links and high credibility. There is a lot of competition going on now a days. You seem to posses a great knowledge about article marketing. Keep writing bro….m sure this will help a lot.
Good article. You definitely have to think outside the box on keywords. I like how Rosalind said to tie in your keywords with famous people. That’s true and I’ll take that advice. thanks!
Great tips! I am also involved in SEO and these bits of info are essential for the success of the company. Thanks for your tips, more power to you!
I agree. Keywords are one of the most important aspects of getting good traffic and then creating sales. In article marketing you should try to have a keyword density of 3-5% but if submitting to Ezinearticles.com you may have to go to under 1% or they will deny you for excessive keywords. It has happened to me multiple times.
Hi Ron,
I think that anyone writing an article that is intended for humans would naturally end up with a keyword density of around 1 – 2%. Anything more than that makes it obvious to IM’s that it’s SEO’d… and just makes for bad reading for ‘normal folks’ – the folks to whom we want to promote our products.
Cheers,
Ros
I think you are right. In reality, having a keyword over kill doesn’t really help the search engine find the page any more than 1% or 2% would. It just makes reading the article seem awkward.
Finding the “Niche within the Niche” is a great way of putting it!
Too many people end up trying to target “dog training” instead of really digging down and finding the long tail keywords they can do well with.
Thanks for another informative article.
I too have written a ton of articles. I found that I get quite a bite of response because my articles are authoritative in the niche I promote, and so I get traffic to my website that way. I have only recently learned about creating good anchor text links to my website to help it with page ranking.
Hi Tracey,
First rule – pick something you love and will be willing to work at for a long time to come. OR, pick something you really want to learn about and document your progress.
In either case, the finer you niche it – or if you can combine 2 or better yet, 3 big markets and work it, work it, work it… you will succeed.
Cheers,
Ros